Be Careful How You Walk

Transcript

GR 156
11/09/1975
Be Careful How You Walk
Ephesians 5:15-21
Gil Rugh

Ephesians Chapter 5, we began the study of this chapter last week and looked through the first 14 verses. So we come to verse 15, we come to a verse with an emphasis that has been stressed again and again. Paul begins in verse 15, “Therefore be careful how you walk.” This is the eighth time in the book of Ephesians that Paul has used the word “walk” and brings to our attention something of the stress on the regular conduct and practice of the believer. So what Paul uses the word “walk” for our conduct and our practice, and it is our walk that day by day, moment by moment proceeding and how we conduct ourselves.

Just a brief review looking over these passages back in Chapter 2 verse 2 we have the first use of the word “walk”. Paul says, “And you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you formally walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience,” talking about what our walk used to be. Our walk used to be characterized by unbelief. We conducted ourselves according to the affairs of this world. The character we manifested was the character of the prince of this world. So my conduct and character were pervaded by this world and the prince of this world.

Look down at verse 10. Paul has stressed verse 8 that we are saved by grace through faith and it is not a result of works. At verse 10, “We are his workmanship. We are not saved by our works but by what he has done. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Again the word “walk.” That we should conduct ourselves in the realm now of good works, not for our salvation but because of our salvation. I am not to conduct myself in a new realm. You know this is part of God’s intended purpose in salvation that he should save me by grace through faith in order that I might conduct myself in accord with his will and his character.

Looking over in Chapter 4, you note he mentioned that word only twice in the first three chapters because in the first three chapters its stress was on our position in Christ, what you are in Christ. Now live in light of what you are. Chapter 4 verse 1, “I therefore the prisoner of the Lord entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” Again walking in accord with his calling; the conduct of my life, the character that is manifest in all practice is to be that which is in harmony with his exalted call. Look down in verse 17 of Chapter 4. “This I say therefore and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the utility or emptiness of their mind.

Again the negative side. Don’t walk like you used to walk, like the Gentiles or the unbelievers, the synonym here. Don’t walk like the unbeliever walks any longer. The unbeliever conducts himself according to one standard. We conduct ourselves according to another standard. The unbeliever conducts himself according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. The believer conducts himself according to his position in the heavenly, in accord with the character of God. So how can we walk any longer like the unbeliever walks.

Look down in Chapter 5 verse 2. Verse 1 we looked at last week, the imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also loved you. I’d be imitating, patterning myself after God. It’s His character that is now seen in my conduct. I am to walk in love just as Christ loved us. So again the conduct of my life is to conform to the conduct of Jesus Christ in the character that he manifested. Look up in verse 8, “For you are formerly darkness but now you are light.” You note there is a totally change that has come in. Formerly I was darkness and so I walked as a child with the darkness according to this world and the prince of the power of the air. Now you are light in the Lord. That’s what I am. I am light in the Lord. I have been established with Jesus Christ in the heavenlies.

Now does God expect? Walk as children of light. Conduct yourself in accordance with what you are and that’s down to verse 15 for the eighth time. Paul uses the word walk and he says be careful how you walk. It is not possible to disassociate the conduct of the believer from the position of the believer. If you do not understand your position in Christ, you have no basis upon which to conduct yourself as a Christian. By the same token that you do not conduct yourself in accord with the character of God as revealed in the word that is an indication you do not understand your position in Christ even though you may know certain facts about it because your understanding will manifest itself in a changed conduct and pattern of life.

The opening 14 verses Paul talked about imitating God and the negative side of that in the first seven verses was immortality and related activity whether it is in conduct or speech as they have no place among believers. It is just ruled out totally, immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthy talk, improper jesting, all of that has to go. Why? Because that is conduct in conformity with the character of this world and I am no longer to conduct myself along that standard. The contrast in verses 8 down to 14 was we are light, not darkness. And so we conduct ourselves as children of light proving verse 10 what is pleasing to the Lord. We know that word trying to learn or proving means to put to the test for the purpose of approving what the will of the Lord is.

All right verse 15, and verse 15 really picks up where verse 8 left off. In verse 8 Paul said walk as children of light. Now verse 15, therefore be careful how you walk. So given a little bit of an exposition and what it means to walk as a child of light. Now he comes back to that again. Be careful how you walk, and again that exhortation your conduction. Be careful. Look carefully how you walk, how you conduct yourself and that is the responsibility that we have as believers, to be examining our walk in light of the word and see if it indeed manifest the position that we have in Christ.

Now what does that mean to walk carefully? Well, he elaborates it at the end of the verse, not as unwise but as wise. A Christian was walking carefully, accurately, walking as God intends for him, as the one who is not walking as an unwise person but as a wise person. Again Paul uses the negative and the positive to show the contrast. He is not talking about human intellect. The unbeliever can walk with intelligence in the human realm. He is talking about spiritual wisdom and the unbeliever is totally devoid of any spiritual understanding. The simplest truth from the word of God eludes him. We saw this back in Chapter 4 and the end of verse 17 where the Gentiles or the unbelievers walk out in the futility of their mind, the emptiness of their mind, the purposelessness of their mind.

Why? Verse 18, “Being darkened in their understanding excluded for the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their hearts.” Verse 20, “But you did not learn Christ this way. Indeed you have heard him and being taught in him.” The unbeliever is totally without wisdom when it comes to spiritual things. He is not able to function in that realm. We are not to walk as unwise, as the unbeliever who has no knowledge and no understanding of spiritual thing, but I am to conduct myself according to wisdom; the understanding I have of the character and person of Jesus Christ, the position that I now occupy in him.

So you know it is possible for a believer to walk in an unwise manner but it is not acceptable before God for a believer to walk as an unwise, walking as the world is walking as an unwise person. I am walking in accord with those who have no spiritual perception. I am walking in accord with those who have no intellectual, spiritual understanding. They are devoid of that so I should pattern my life in conformity to them.

All right verse 16, what does it mean to walk as a wise person? How do I know when I am walking as a wise person now? Simply when my walk is in conformity with the word but to break it down a little bit, Paul warns making the most of your time because the days are evil. A person who is walking as a wise person is a person who is making the most of his time literally redeeming the opportunities, buying up the opportunities. I will note here there is a marked distinction between the conduct of a believer and the conduct of an unbeliever. An unbeliever is one who is not buying up the opportunities, and thus he is walking as an unwise person because he has no spiritual perception at all of reality as God reveals it.

The believer is to walk as a wise person and a believer who is walking as a wise person is a believer who is buying up, redeeming the opportunity, purchasing the time. We are familiar with that as it is in the margin and as it is in the King James to redeem and that is the word, to buy, to purchase. I take it the implication here is that there is something given on my behalf to make the most of the opportunities that are available, the reason given is the days are evil. Now this evil denotes a moral decadence. It does not mean that we are not in hard times as we sometimes talk about, just situations that are difficult but the word implies a moral decadence or evil, thus sin.

Paul is saying believers must be redeeming the time because we live in wicked days. Now I think the situation has not changed except maybe for the worse. That sin does not get better and better, it gets worse and worse. And if things were bad in Paul’s day the generous he has carried us further down. And so if they were evil in Paul’s day, we are at least as bad if not worse today. Now the responsibility of believers were to buy up the opportunities then. I think the responsibility has not changed one bit. If I am walking as God intends me to walk as a wise Christian I will be purchasing the opportunities. Now there is a difficulty here. I take it carries over what does it mean to purchase the opportunities, to redeem the time. How do I know if I am really redeeming the time and purchasing the opportunity as God has made them available?

I take it I have to analyze myself in light of the word and in light of the world. Now we realize that there are two opposing and unequal systems going on. They have nothing in common. They are God’s system and the world’s system. They are in two totally different realms. Now I live in a world that is governed by the prince of the world and this world system. And it is lived in by unwise people, people who have no spiritual intellect or insight.

Now the danger is that I become conformed in my conduct to the conduct of these who have no spiritual insight and are walking according to the prince of this world. I take it one very real and a basic area, basic to everything else, is the materialism of the world in which we live. The world lives in one dimension. The unbeliever lives in one dimension. He lives in the materialistic realm because he is blind in darkness alienated from the life of God. He lives as though there was no spiritual dimension to life at all, and for him there is not. So he functions totally in a materialistic realm, that’s where his thoughts, his attention and his life revolves.

Now the danger that faces us as believers is that we become drawn in to the world’s philosophy and I find myself being conformed to the conduct of the unwise, to those who are in darkness. What I do with my life? What I do with my time, my energies and everything else that is mine is no different than the world does. The materialism and the spiritual blindness of the world become a characteristic in many ways of a Christian. We do not see ourselves as markedly different. I am afraid an area where it often shows up is just in the area of concrete materialism. The things we do with our time and our money. Where does it revolve? Now the unsaved person has to do but work to get more money, to get a better position so he can live a little more comfortably so he can have a little more so he can rise and it keeps going on. What else does he have?

The tragedy is that we as Christians get involved in that. The world says it is important. The world says it is nice. The world advertises that I ought to have it. You know what I do; I begin to function in the realm of my wants, no longer in the realm of my needs. Paul says that if you have food and clothing be satisfied. And I sort of expand that a little more and you know we begin to go on that cycle. It’s not that I need a new suit but I want a new suit. I don’t really need a new car but you know I really want one. And I begin to satisfy my wants that is just another way of saying I am materialistic.

Materialism is an attitude of the mind, and that sort of gets me off the hook because you don’t know what my mind is doing and so you don’t know if I am materialistic or not. Maybe I just bought a new car but I really you know no big thing, I am not materialistic I just wanted it. I always get on cars because my car is almost three years old now so. But you know the breakdown of that, the breakdown is the very emphasis of the Book of Ephesians. That what you do is an evidence of what is in your mind and we reveal more than what we want to reveal because what I do with my money, what I do with my time is an evidence of what I think about.

To say I am not materialistic is not really important to me, just one of things that I have. But what am I doing with God’s resources and God’s time, tying them up in something that I have just said is of no value and no importance, and I really don’t need it. That is materialism. I am afraid it pervades us as believers and I guess it’s the great concern I have for us at Indian Hills. Some six years have gone by since I came to pastor here and we have gotten a little older as a congregation whether we like to admit it or not. I was 26 and now I am 32 and that makes me a little older. And most of you have gotten older. Not all of you, some of you are only three years older than when I came but some of us are six years old.

But you know what happens when you are younger you know and you are in your 20s and you are just getting going, getting your family, you are struggling just to make ends’ meet. But you know you sort of get over a hump there. You know what happens before I was struggling to make ends meet, what are we about? We are about acquiring now for ourselves. Now I begin to build up for me. I am glad I am over that time where everything was so tight. Now I am a little bit looser to what? To acquire for me, spend on me. Before I had to just make a struggle, to make ends meet, and I was satisfied that the Lord gave me enough food and clothes and be able to pay the bills. But now it’s a little more and a little more and a little more, and you can look and analyze your life; I analyze mine.

Ten years ago you had less because you made less, but you made more now what do you have? You have more. For those who are saying it is not enough to have that car, you got to have a little bit more and you know the Lord has given me a little more. I don’t have to wear these clothes. It would be nice to have a little nicer cloth. I don’t have enough to live here, now I have to live a little nicer. How is that different than the world?

The world takes what it has and invested here. So we settled down into an average middle class run of the mill congregation. There is no urgency. There is no sense of driving urgency about reaching the world. In many ways we see the foolishness of the rich men in Luke Chapter 12. We had so much; we couldn’t decide what to do. So do you decide? Ah, I will build bigger barns. Good idea. Then after my bigger barn, you know what I am doing I am getting ready to take it easy and sort of the emphasis of the world as you get ready for retirement. You store up so you can take it a little bit more comfortable. The Lord wants you to be comfortable. He will take you home to glory. So unless you are ready, don’t put so much of a stress on it. But we get all set, you know.

You know what God said to Nicodemus, you are a fool. Tonight your soul is going to be required of you then who are all things going to be. I am aware that man is an unbeliever. Maybe I ought to ask some of you what if God said tonight your soul is required of you, what would you have tomorrow? What, everything you ever have encountered here would be right here with us in Lincoln, Nebraska, will there be any treasure over there. Now even though that may be addressed to an unbeliever Jesus uses it as a warning to his children and his disciples not to adopt the materialistic philosophy of the world because he goes on to say to them, be not anxious for tomorrow what you will eat or drink or anything else. Be satisfied if you have got enough for today. God takes care of the bird, doesn’t he? He will take care of you.

Look over in Second Peter Chapter 3. Second Peter in the third chapter, same kind of emphasis is brought out from the idea of the destruction of this world system. Verse 10, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat.” The Earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, the elements will melt with intense heat. But according to his promise we are looking for a new heavens and a new Earth in which righteousness dwell; again that warning to believers.

Concentrate your life on godliness, everything here is going to be consumed and yet since the world counts it importance I find myself becoming like the world. I live like the world, why? Because the world says I should. It is manifest throughout this land, I am afraid, where we live in a wealthy place, I am not much for social emphasis in preaching and if you have come here long enough you know that, if you don’t you ought to come long enough and it will be good for you. But I am aware that the abuse from the other side is just as bad and we see what happens.

There has never yet been a Christian civilization “where Christianity has flourished” that has become materially affluent where Christianity has withstood the test, notwithstanding the United States. And if I worded that right I mean the United States is not excluded because all you have to do is look at the statistics from different countries in the world like the Third World, Asia and so on where Christianity is growing at three and four times the rate of the population and their rate of population makes us look like misers. And in the United States we can hardly keep up with the population growth. What does that indicate?

It indicates in spite of all we have and all the affluence we have all we have done is gotten wrapped in it and become more like it and less effective in reaching the world, why? Become we become like the world. They over there have to nothing but give their life to reaching people for Christ. They don’t have anything. So they don’t have anything to be occupied with. We here have so much. We have got our important jobs and our prestige and our homes and our cars and our clothes and our bank account and getting set for retirement and on and on and on. And yet we tell people you know we are expecting Jesus any day. A little bit odd, isn’t it? I hope that I am going to be ready to live comfortably after 65 but I am getting ready for it but I expect Jesus is coming tomorrow. We don’t live that. We live just like the world, the world’s values, the world’s goals have become ours. And we don’t like to admit and it is to fade in because everybody else is doing it. That’s the catch right there.

We are not redeeming the time. We are not purchasing the opportunity. We are too busy about the mundane, unimportant, transitory things of this life. The choir sings the song my friend and me, you know, how we just walk through this world and just strangers. Oh my how we become attached. Interesting in reading one commentary where a man was noting his friend was walking through the rather plush awnings of a friend. He looked about all these that man had. His comment to him was it’s this kind of things that makes dying so hard. When you think about it, it will happen. We get so attached here, all of a sudden when it comes to leaving I have realized I am not a stranger here. It’s not a matter of just folding up my tent. I become so attached that it is hard to leave it. I rather love it.

You say well that’s not the situation at all. And if it is not the situation, we are to manifest of that in our conduct by not being involved in it at all. So we ought to be redeeming the time, purchasing the opportunities, seeing things in light of spiritual reality that men and women need to be reached with a message of Jesus Christ. That all that matters is that I be the person that he intends for me to be. And if my job stands in the way, then I ought to leave that job and toss it for another one. It doesn’t matter what I do in this life anyway, does it? As long as it puts food on the table and clothes on my back who cares? We care, and that’s an evidence for the materialistic influence of this life on the believer.

Verse 16, “Making the most of your time because the days are evil”. We have tremendous opportunities today. Open doors in this country. But you see the time coming of Jesus Christ doesn’t come where they may be done. But does that move with the sense of urgency? Often just the opposite; we want to get as much of the world has to offer before it is too late to get it. What a tragic sense of values that we manifest often as believers.

Verse 17, “So then do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Very strong words here; don’t be foolish, don’t lack intelligent understanding. Now you know he is writing to Christians. He says this is a danger that they could become foolish without comprehension and understanding just like the unbeliever. He doesn’t comprehend things in light of eternal values, and the believer can begin to function like that. But understand, a strong word; it denotes an intellectual comprehension and understanding.

It’s not just an acquaintance with the facts, but it is an intellectual comprehension. We are talking about spiritual intellect in comprehension. Understand what the will of the Lord is. In other words, if I understand on the level that he is talking about with the comprehension, that understanding, will manifest itself in my conduct. If it does not manifest itself in my conduct, it is simply an indication that I have certain facts but I have no real understanding.

Now we wonder what the will of the Lord is, how do I know the will of the Lord? Paul said very simply, you ought to understand it. If you don’t understand it, it is an indication your life is out of line with what he is talking about. The will of God has revealed in the word. As I exposed myself to the world and the Spirit’s ministry through the word, I understand what God wants. Here he is telling right here. What is the will of the Lord? The will of the Lord is that I walk as a wise person, redeeming the time. We like to make the will of God out here something that we got to strive and wrestle with to define. Here he tells us in black and white. Walk as a wise person redeeming the time. Understand, that’s what the will of the Lord is. Often we don’t understand because we don’t want to.

Verse 18, “Do not get drunk with wine for that debauchery or dissipation but be filled with the Spirit.” Again Paul contrasts the positive and the negative. Don’t get drunk with wine. Now in our situation here we all say amen to that because most of us aren’t drunks. But you know I am always glad to amen somebody else’s sin. It ought to stop, of course. But he is drawing a parallel here in spite of the fact that this is often used for temperance sermons and so on. That’s not the purpose. That’s just one side of what Paul wants to stress.

Don’t get drunk with wine. That’s debauchery. That’s a dissolute life, licentiousness. No occasion ever for a Christian to be boozed up under the influence literally soaked in wine, and we call him Aesop and that word here get to the idea that they have soaked in wine, drunk. But be filled with the Spirit. No, instead of being drunk be filled. And not drunk with wine, what the world would provide as a controlling influence, but be filled with the Spirit. He is either within you or he’s not, he doesn’t have two toes and a finger in and does get filled. He is either within your body or is not, but filling has the idea of a controlling. It’s not what you have for the Spirit but it’s what it has of you ultimately.

Look over in Colossians Chapter 3 verse 16. You are Ephesians, next book is Philippians, the next book is Colossians, Chapter 3 verse 16. This is helpful because Paul uses an expression that must be synonymous with filling because he shows the results are exactly the same where you are speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. The same results of filling of the Spirit and in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell richly within you.” With all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, sing with thankfulness in your heart to God. The same results come from letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly that come with being filled with the Spirit. And that’s to become almost synonymous or synonymous period.

That to be filled with Christ is to be allowing the word of Christ to dwell in you richly. What does that mean? It means that God’s word saturates my life in such a way that it pervades all my conduct and character. That my life is conformed to the word; it is not just letting the word dwell.

When I quote some verses or recite a passage it’s to dwell in me richly so that my life is conformed to the word. That is another way of saying being filled with the Spirit because what is the Spirit doing when he controls me, he is conforming me to the words. Second Corinthian 3:18, “As we behold the image of the glory of Jesus Christ in the word we are being transformed by the Spirit into the same image from glory to glory.” So to let the word of Christ dwell in me richly is the same thing as being controlled with the Spirit.

How do I know if I am controlled by the Spirit? Is my life in conformity with the word of God? If it is not, I am not under the control of the Spirit. It doesn’t matter how you feel. A drunk could have a good feeling. Paul says you are not to be drunk. I have passed drunks on the street of Philadelphia who were singing away. Well, that’s not the evidence. The evidence is a life that is conformed to the word. Some people who have heard me saying that I was drunk but that’s not the same thing.

All right back to Ephesians Chapter 5, “We are to be filled with the spirit,” and that’s a present tense. Be constantly being filled with the Spirit. That is to be a constant condition that I am in, is constantly in control of me. Every area of my life in submission to him, being conformed to the word of God; filling is something that goes on continuously, not the same thing as the baptism of the Spirit. If God wanted to say baptized, he would say baptized. Baptism of the Spirit is never a command given to believers.

It is a reality that occurs the moment you believe in Jesus Christ. Paul deals with it in First Corinthians 12:13. It is a point in the past. As far as the Corinthians are concerned, you were baptized at a point in the past but you are to be constantly being filled with the Spirit of God. The baptism of the Spirit was what identified you with Jesus Christ as you were born into God’s family. Be constantly being filled with the Spirit. Now the filling of a Spirit manifest itself, the control of the Spirit manifest itself. Just as the word of God when it dwells in you richly manifest itself. How?

Four participles here, speaking, singing and making melody, taking those two together, verse 20 giving thanks, verse 21 being subject, four areas that the control of the Spirit will manifest itself. That if you are under the control of the Spirit these things will be characteristic of you.

First, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs; I think it is interesting the way it is put, speaking to one another. Here is a ministry among believers to other believers, not speaking to God. Somehow the idea today that you can’t sing songs unless they are addressed to God and you are singing hymn. Here Paul says you ought to be speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. As far back as we can go, as far as 1,200 after Christ extra biblical information how the believers sang as they were together. And the ministry of music has been important.

Now sometimes it has been abused, sometimes it hasn’t been a proper part but nonetheless it has always been an expression or supposed to have been an expression of the Spirit controlling the believer and the joy and thanks and praise that the Spirit is producing in his life. The word psalms here may be referring to the Old Testament Psalms or literally the word means to play on a string instrument and that’s where we get the word psalm from, it’s playing on stringed instruments and the psalms written to be accompanied on stringed instruments.

So it may have to do here with singing the psalms of the Old Testament. It could have to do with the accompaniment that would be the hymns and spiritual songs. Hymns, songs of praise to God and then just broadening it to include all songs with one qualification that are spiritual songs. And you will note the music that is coming out of the Christian is to be spiritual and I take it that’s why my interest in certain music changes. You don’t sing about what you sang about before, why? Because you have a different song now the Spirit is producing, and you are singing about what God has done and is doing in your life.

All right so that’s speaking to one another and then he elaborates in the second participle here, two of them together which would be a takeoff on it, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. So you speak to one another in song, you are singing and making melody with or in your heart. Again the singing and the making melody, that’s the same word of psalm making melody. It can mean playing on the strings or it can be singing the psalms. As you are singing and making melody, it occurs in the heart and comes from the heart. Anybody can open up a hymn book and sing a song. It doesn’t mean the Spirit has done anything in their heart at all. When the Spirit is in control of a believer this songs and melodies are to becoming from his heart as an expression of his praise and gratitude to God produced by the Spirit.

Verse 20, the third part is simple, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ even the Father. So third area, first speaking to one another, second singing and making melody in your heart, third giving thanks; a believer who is controlled by the Spirit has a life that is saturated and totally characterized by giving thanks to God on behalf of all things. Now that makes it all inclusive. I can give thanks to God on behalf of everything, why? All things work together for good. God is causing them to work together for good to those that belong to him, according to Romans Chapter 8.

So if God is in control and he is working everything for my good why can’t I give him thanks in it because I don’t understand. Well, that’s not a qualification. God has said it, don’t I believe it. We find ourselves in situations where I could praise him almost any time but I can’t praise him now. All I am saying I am not filled with the Spirit. No, I don’t mean that. I mean it’s a difficult situation. And God needs you in the difficult situation if you are filled with the Spirit, you would praise and give thanks to him.

So it’s simply a matter of being willing to submit to the Spirit, allow him to control and in the most difficult situations what does he do? It causes us to give thanks and Paul is an example of this as he sat in prison after having his back lacerated with a severe beating, his feet in stocks, and he and Silas sit there singing away. You talk about fanatics. What do they have to sing about? Giving thanks to God for what God had done. I am glad I got this beat up back and my feet in stocks hardly, they were glad they served God and counted worthy to suffer for him. And so I give him thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God the Father.

Again, the order of prayer; you pray to the Father through the Son and we find the prayer is consistently done that way. We addressed the Father in our prayers. But we come through the Son on the basis of what the Son has done. I think no one comes to God in prayer who does not come through the Son. No one comes through the Son who has not believed on him. So prayer comes just a verbal exercise in words for a person who doesn’t believe because he cannot come through Jesus Christ. So in effect he is talking to himself or at the best the person next to him.

Okay, verse 21, the fourth area where the control of the Spirit manifest itself speaking, singing in the heart, giving thanks always, being subject to one another in the fear of Christ. A person who is under control of the Spirit will be willing to subject himself to other believers and the fear of Christ out of the respect and honor due to Christ. This one always carries the idea of a background of respective force.

Now respective force and power of God thus I revere and honor him. And revere and honor gets to the idea but behind is what always lies that idea of the force and power in the person that is respected and honored, and thus sometimes it means fear. And out of revering and honoring Jesus Christ I am willing to have myself submitted to other Christians by the Spirit. He is the one causing me to subject to other believers. Now the details of this are what is going to form the subject of Paul’s writing down through Chapter 6 verse 9. Wives subject to their husbands, children subject to their parents, workers or slaves subject to their bosses or owners, manifestations of submitting to one another.

Here is some concrete examples. When we see a wife who is not subject to her husband is a wife who is not under the control of the Spirit of God. But you don’t know my husband, no but I know the Spirit of God. If you are in control of him you would be subject to your husband. Children who are not subject to their parents are manifesting that their life is not under the control of the Spirit. Slaves or workers who are not subject to their employers are simply manifesting that they are not under the control of the Spirit. So you note that most of the problems and sources of irritation simply come to be a personal spiritual matter and not being willing to subject ourselves to the Spirit and have him conform us to the image of the word of God.

So are you filled with the Spirit, do these things characterize you, the speaking, the singing in your heart, the giving thanks in every situation, the being willing to submit yourself? It’s a difficult area and I take it that’s Paul elaborates it. We all like to be on top and to submit myself, well, to the right person. Well, he says that we submit ourselves to one another and we that exemplified in Christ, to have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus even though he was equaled with God, what did he do? He humbled himself and became obedient, in Philippians Chapter 2. I am to have the same mind. Now his humbling and becoming obedient to the point of death and at death at the cross is an example for me. To willing to humble myself before other believers and to be obedient to them in the order that God has established.

So this section beginning with verse 15, be careful how you walk, how do you walk? Are you walking in wisdom? If you are that will be characterized by buying up the time, using it wisely in light of eternal values. Are you filled with the Spirit? Are you under the Spirit’s control? If so that will manifest itself in the praise that comes from your lips among other believers and the joy that is expressed from your heart and the giving of thanks to God in all situations and the willing submission to those that God has placed over us. This is God’s pattern for us in our conduct. He is not asking us to do anything that he has not exemplified in his son. You can read in Second Corinthians Chapter 8 that he, though he was rich became poor for our sakes that through him we might become rich in the ultimate sense.

You examine your life, I examine my life. One other word I need to say, perhaps you are here and what we are saying doesn’t pertain to you, you are in the realm of the unwise. You are in the realm of those who are totally involved in this world and that’s all you have, your job, your position, you home and so on. And you are like the rich men. If Jesus Christ would call you and say this is not your soul shall be required of you, whose would those things be? What would you have if you had to die tonight? Do you have anything stored up in eternity? The only preparation you can make is to believe in Jesus Christ. You become God’s child established with him in the heavenlies and then his Spirit begins to produce his character in your life.

Let’s pray together. Our Father we thank you for your words, its clarity. Lord even in areas this morning which are somewhat unpleasant because Lord it seems to speak to us directly. Lord you know how easy it is for us to become involved in the materialism of the day. See that we are not functioning as you would as the work of the Spirit. Lord we pray that we would sensitive to him, be willing to be conformed to your word in every area. We pray Lord that those who are here who do not yet know you personally, who have no hope outside of this life in the hopelessness of the materialism of this day, we pray that even now they might see Jesus Christ as the one who loved them and died for them in order that they might have eternal provision in your presence. May they even believe in him and respond to the word. Thank you for all in Jesus--.